It’s summer and with all the produce you’ll be scoring at your local farmer’s market (hopefully you’ll be buying organic) it’s no doubt that your fridge will be fuller than usual. But on an average, Americans throw out at least 25% of the produce that they buy, due to spoilage. Although this statistic may be great for your composter, it’s bad for your wallet and really wasteful!
Fortunately there are many products out there that can help you reduce the amount of ethylene, the odorless colorless gas that’s released by produce that makes ripening happen faster. My personal favorites are the Evert-Fresh Green Bags and the BioFresh Resealable Zipper Produce Bags— I’ve been using them both for about a year, and they’re also a really great alternative to using plastic baggies from the market. If you bring your own produce bags, you won’t have to repack them when you get home and you’ll end up with less plastic waste.
I recently read an article in Vegetarian Times that reviewed and tested these bags and other ethylene-reducing products. Their winners, (they tested using lettuce) which I’m interested to check out are the E.G.G (ethylene gas guardian), the FridgeSmart container and the ExtraLife Disc.
You can find it under the following topic(s): Food, Green Mom, Home, Investing in the Environment, nutrition, vegan, vegetarian.
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I use the evert-fresh ones and they work miracles. I’m talking 10 day old broccoli, week-old lettuce- all fine and dandy and tasting good.
Also, these bags aren’t throw-aways, so they reduce plastic bag garbage- I just rinse mine out with water and let them dry and they’ve lasted for over two years now!
June 28th, 2006 at 11:55 amThanks for posting this Ann. Starre gave me one of these years ago and I have been thinking about them lately, but couldn’t remember what they were called!! They are amazing.
June 28th, 2006 at 2:19 pmHmm, these bags sound interesting (I’ve certainly never seen any in the UK), and they may be reusable but what’s involved in their production? I favour a lower-tech approach. Buying only what you need until you can shop again, wrapping produce in tea-towls, using the the most short-lived produce first, and making soup/compote with produce that’s past its best… idealistic perhaps!
On a more technical front I beleive it’s best not to put fruit (tomatoes) in the fridge with greens, and to keep fruit well ventilated.
June 28th, 2006 at 9:33 pm